The invention relates to a connector with retainer members, concerning improvement of the retainer members, particularly to a connector with retainer members attachable to a panel of electronic or electrical equipment from either a front or back wall face thereof when attaching the connector to the panel, and a method of attaching the connector to the panel.
As a connector for attachment to a panel of an electronic equipment, electrical equipment, or the like, there has been in widespread use a connector having a pair of elastic retainer arms installed on the sidewalls of a housing proper thereof, which is publicly known. An example of such a connector is disclosed in JU-B 4-21270. FIGS. 6(A) to 6(C) show a connector disclosed in JU-B 4-21270, wherein FIG. 6(A) is a perspective view of the connector, FIG. 6(B) and FIG. 6(C) are partially enlarged views of the elastic retainer arms when the connector is attached to a panel.
As shown in FIG. 6(A), a connector 100 is made up of an insulating housing in box shape, a pair of elastic retainer arms 120, 120 are installed at substantially intermediate position on sidewalls 110, 110, on both sides of the insulating housing, respectively, so as to extend outwardly from the sidewalls 110, 110. The elastic retainer arms 120, 120 each have flexibility enabling them to undergo flexure towards the respective sidewalls when subjected to external force. When the connector 100 is inserted into an attachment port 210 of a panel 200 from the direction of the arrow in FIG. 6(A), the pair of elastic retainer arms 120, 120 undergo flexure towards the sidewalls, respectively, against the urging of elastic force thereof, and are inserted into the attachment port 210. As the connector 100 is inserted deeper into the attachment port 210, a notched part 130, provided at the extremity of both the elastic retainer arms 120, 120, is butted against a recess 220 provided on both sides of the attachment port 210, and is caused to undergo flexure inwardly due to pressing force exerted by the recess 220. When the connector 100 is further pushed into the attachment port 210, the notched part 130 is shifted from a notch 130N at the foot thereof towards a notch 130A at the tip thereof.
Such shifting of the notched part 130 continues until a collar 140 of the connector 100 is butted against the panel 200. Upon butting of the collar 140 against the panel 200, the direction of insertion is established and simultaneously, the notched part 130 is secured by pressing force of the recess 220 on each side. The notched part 130 of the respective elastic retainer arms 120, 120 is provided with a plurality of the notches 130A, 130B . . . 130N, formed thereon, and the respective elastic retainer arms 120, 120 are retained at any notch of the plurality of the notches in such a way as to correspond to a thickness of a panel plate.
However, with the connector comprising the elastic retainer arms described above, a direction of attachment of the connector to a panel is limited to that from one wall face of the panel owing to a structure of retainer members of the connector, and usually, the connector can be attached only from the direction of the arrow in FIG. 6(A). If attachment of the connector from a wall face on the opposite side is attempted, this will cause the orientation of the connector to become opposite to that shown in FIG. 6(A), resulting in a change in a position of connection with another connector. Further, in order to render the orientation of the connector to be the same as the direction of connection even when the connector is attached from the wall face on the same side, there has been the need for preparing a connector with retainer members fitted to the sidewalls, in a different direction. For this reason, two different kinds of connectors are required, which has resulted in an increase in inventories, and has become uneconomical. At the same time, there has been no choice but to place severe limitations on design flexibility in connection with connectors, and attachment thereof to a panel, or the like. Since the elastic retainer arm is made up of an elastic piece in the form of a cantilever, the elastic retainer arm undergoes deformation or breakage if a foreign matter is caught in a gap or the elastic retainer is subjected to an external stress unexpectedly. Further, the elastic retainer arms undergo flexure towards the respective sidewalls against the urging of elastic force thereof at the time of the connector being attached to, or removed from the panel, whereupon stress is concentrated on the root of the respective elastic retainer arms, where the same are attached to the sidewalls, respectively, due to the flexure, and consequently, the root of the respective elastic retainer arms needs to be firmly secured to the sidewall in order to maintain a predetermined elastic force and to prevent breakage. However, the firmer the root of the respective elastic retainer arms is secured to the sidewall, the more the elastic force of the respective elastic retainer arms has to be sacrificed, so that greater force is required when fitting the connector into the panel while there is limitation to force of retaining the connector to the panel, thereby causing a problem of insufficient stability.
Meanwhile, there has been in widespread use another method of attachment by use of a connector provided with screws in place of the elastic retainer arms described above, enabling attachment from either a front wall face or a back wall face of a panel. However, in the case of such a connector using means for secure attachment with screws, there have arisen problems in that the number of parts increases because bolts and nuts are required, and work for attachment is bothersome and poor in efficiency because a jig is required for attaching the connector to the panel, or removing the same from the panel.
The invention has been developed to eliminate the problems described above, and a first object of the invention is to provide a connector with retainer members attachable to a panel from a direction of either a front or back wall face thereof, and easily removable from the panel.
It is another object of the invention to provide a connector with retainer members with enhanced spring stability by preventing concentration of stress on the retainer members.
Further, a still another object of the invention is to provide a method of attaching a connector to a panel, wherein the connector in a predetermined posture can be fitted into an attachment port of the panel when attaching the connector to the attachment port.
The above objects of the invention can be achieved by the following means.
The connector according to the first to sixth aspects of the invention comprises an insulating housing with connector terminals fitted therein, flanges orthogonal to a direction of insertion and removal through the insulating housing and projected outwardly from at least one wall face of the insulating housing, comprising front and back faces, respectively, and a pair of retainer members having flexibility, fixedly attached to both side ends or both up-down ends of the insulating housing, respectively, characterized in that the retainer members are provided with a pair of retainer stepped parts, and there is a gap for allowing fixture of the panel between the front and back faces of the respective flanges and the respective retainer stepped parts of the retainer members.
The pair of retainer stepped parts are inserted into coupling ports of panels such that one retainer stepped part is inserted into a coupling port of a first panel while the other retainer stepped part is inserted into a coupling port of a second panel so that respective panels are retained and secured in the gap between the respective retainer stepped parts and the wall faces of the flanges.
The connector terminals preferably employ male and/or female connectors, connectable to other connectors freely removable from either one end or both ends of the insulating housing.
The freely removable connectors are connected to the connector terminals from either one end or both ends of the connectors. As a result, the connector terminals can be connectable to various electronic equipment by way of the connectors.
The respective retainer members are preferably made up of retainer loops having flexibility, and the respective retainer loops comprise concave grooves provided at the center of an outer wall face opposed to a part of a wall of the housing, to which the respective retainer loops are secured, inclined surfaces provided on both sides of the concave groove, respectively, so as to be inclined outwardly, and a retainer stepped part provided on the respective inclined surfaces.
The retainer loops are preferably formed so as to be substantially uniform in wall thickness or to become smaller in wall thickness from a part of a wall of the housing, to which the respective retainer loops are secured, towards the concave groove, thereby obtaining flexibility.
The retainer stepped part is preferably made up of a stepped part to be engaged with edges of an opening of an attachment port of the panel, and the stepped part is provided in the form of a step or a plurality of steps on the respective inclined surfaces.
A pair of small flanges with a outer width identical to that of aforesaid flange is preferably formed widthwise at the center of the bottom of the concave groove, and outer sidewall faces of the small flange and sidewall faces of aforesaid flange are oriented along the same plane.
Further, since the retainer loops undergo flexure in flat and pass through the attachment port of the panel when it is inserted into the attachment port of the panel, and restore respective original shapes after they passed through the attachment port so that the retainer stepped parts are engaged with the peripheral edge of the attachment port. Since the retainer members are made up of the ring-shaped retainer loops, they function like a double cantilever spring as compared with the conventional panel lock which has been in the form of a cantilever spring, so that concentration of stress can be prevented, and spring strength and spring stability can be enhanced.
The connector according to the seventh aspect of the invention is characterized in that the insulating housing of the connector as in any of the first to sixth aspects of the invention is divided at the flange, as the boundary, into a front housing and a back housing and both the front and back housings differ in external shape from each other.
The connector according to the eighth aspect of the invention is characterized in that the insulating housing of the connector as in any of the first to sixth aspects of the invention is divided at the flange, as the boundary, into a front housing and a back housing and both the front and back housings are substantially identical in external shape.
A method of attaching a connector to a panel according to the ninth aspect of the invention comprises the steps of preparing a connector as in seventh aspect of the invention, and a panel provided with an attachment port for fitting the connector therein, forming the attachment port in the shape substantially identical to an external shape of a front housing of the connector, thereby enabling insertion of the connector into the attachment port from the extremity of the front housing, and causing the extremity of the front housing or a back housing to impinge against a peripheral edge of an opening of the attachment port when an attempt is made to insert the connector with the extremity of the front housing, being upside down, or with the back housing entering first, thereby blocking insertion of the connector.
A method of attaching a connector to a panel according to the tenth aspect of the invention comprises the steps of preparing a connector as in the seventh aspect of the invention, and a panel provided with an attachment port of the panel for fitting the connector therein, forming the attachment port of the panel in the shape substantially identical to an external shape of a front housing or back housing of the connector, thereby enabling insertion of the connector into the attachment port of the panel from the extremity of the front housing or the extremity of the back housing, and causing the extremity of the front housing or a back housing to impinge against a peripheral edge of an opening of the attachment port when an attempt is made to insert the connector from the extremity of the front housing or from the extremity of the back housing, being upside down, thereby blocking insertion of the connector.
A method of attaching a connector to a panel according to the eleventh aspect of the invention comprises the steps of preparing a connector as in the eighth aspect of the invention, and a panel provided with an attachment port for fitting the connector therein, forming the attachment port of the panel in the shape substantially identical to an external shape of a front housing or back housing of the connector, thereby enabling insertion of the connector into the attachment port from the extremity of the front housing or back housing, and causing the extremity of the front housing or a back housing to impinge against a peripheral edge of an opening of the attachment port when an attempt is made to insert the connector from the extremity of the front housing or from the extremity of the back housing, being upside down, thereby blocking insertion of the connector.
A method of attaching a connector to a panel according to the twelfth aspect of the invention comprises the steps of preparing a connector as in the eighth aspect of the invention, and a panel provided with an attachment port for fitting the connector therein, forming the attachment port of the panel in the shape substantially identical to an external shape of a front housing or back housing of the connector, wherein the connector can be inserted into the attachment port from the direction of either the front housing or the back housing, even if being upside down.
The connector is inserted into the attachment port of the panel in a predetermined manner from either a front or back wall face thereof to the panel. With the method of this attachment, the connector can be fitted in the panel, thereby improving design flexibility in connection with connectors, and attachment thereof to a panel.